We love a book that lends itself to so much social emotional learning! This week we are spotlighting Ricky, The Rock That Couldn’t Roll because it can be used to teach so many important concepts from friendship and self esteem to teamwork and perseverance. This book is a great one to pull out when you might be starting a unit that is challenging or when students need to be working together. It is a really cute story that students and teachers alike are sure to love. - Jodi and the Starts With a Story Team
SUMMARY
Ricky the Rock That Couldn’t Roll takes place on a green, grassy hill where rocks come to play. All of the rocks there have fun rolling down the hill. However, there is one rock that does not roll. His name is Ricky and he can’t roll because he is flat on one side. All of the other rocks have fun rolling down hills but Ricky isn’t able to join in. Because he is not like the others, he is forced to sit on the sidelines. His friends work together to find a way to help Ricky roll so that he can join in the fun. They try many different solutions without success. Finally, one of the rocks comes up with a way to make Ricky round so he can roll like the rest of them. He is finally able to join in on all the fun rolling down the hill like his friends.
Students will love this story about friendship and perseverance.
USE THIS BOOK TO TEACH:
If you are reading Ricky, The Rock That Couldn’t Roll in your classroom, there are many skills you can integrate. Follow up your read aloud with thoughtful, targeted reading comprehension questions. Expand students thinking about the story by having them write about concepts in the book. There is so much you can do with this story, take a look at some of our ideas below!
- Stop and make predictions as your read the book. This is a great strategy to keep students engaged and thinking about the story.
- Examine the cause and effect of events and character’s actions in the story.
- Encourage students to write procedures that match events in the book.
- Practice letter writing.
- Introduce new contractions and pronouns.
- Teach students about verb tense.
- Discuss the importance of showing empathy to others and having high self esteem.
NO-PREP PRINTABLE ACTIVITIES:
If you are looking for “ready to go” activities for the first day of school, be sure to check out the book companion. With it you’ll receive all of the following resources to align with this specific book:
- comprehension questions
- 30 writing prompts with themed paper
- vocabulary activities
- word study print & go activities
- ideas for grammar lessons with focus sentence printables
- social emotional learning discussion topics
- graphic organizers to target specific comprehension skills and strategies
Our Starts With a Story Book Companion has so many great lessons and activities you can use with Ricky, The Rock That Couldn’t Roll. There is so much you teach with this one book!
GET THE PRINTABLE ACTIVITIES
ADDITIONAL BOOK SUGGESTIONS
You and your students will also love these similar books:
- I’m Not Just a Scribble by Diane Alber
- Grumpy Monkey by Suzanne Lang
- The Good Egg by Jory John
- Nerdy Birdy by Aaron Reynolds
TRY OUT A SAMPLE COMPANION
It's hard to explain how amazing the Starts with a Story book companions are because there is just so much goodness included in each one. It's best if you experience using one for yourself. Sign up below & we'll send you an entire book companion to try out for FREE!
